Come Drink with Me

Discuss releases from Arrow and the films on them.

Moderator: yoloswegmaster

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Come Drink with Me

#1 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Dec 17, 2021 5:57 pm

Image

Years before Shaw Brothers’ kung fu films made them the biggest film studio in Hong Kong, local audiences flocked to their wuxia pian films: mythic tales of swordfighting (and often gravity-defying) heroes fighting for honor. In his final film for the studio, Come Drink With Me, director King Hu (A Touch of Zen) broke fresh new ground in martial arts storytelling, and catapulted fresh-faced lead actress Cheng Pei-pei to stardom in the process.

When the Governor’s son is taken hostage by bandits, a mysterious swordsman named Golden Swallow (Cheng) is hot on their trail to ensure the son’s release. What the bandits don’t realize, however, is that Golden Swallow is actually a woman, and that the hostage is her brother. Determined to set him free, no matter how many goons she has to fight her way through in doing so, she is aided in her quest by a drunken beggar (Yueh Hua) who may have a closer connection to the bandits’ leader than he initially lets on.

Decades before Ang Lee brought the wuxia genre to international attention with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (in which Cheng played the villainous Jade Fox), King Hu set the original template in what is still considered one of Shaw Brothers’ greatest and most influential action masterpieces.

BONUS FEATURES
  • High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ presentation
  • Uncompressed Mandarin and English original mono audio
  • Optional English subtitles, plus English hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dub
  • Brand new audio commentary by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
  • Interview with star Cheng Pei-pei, filmed by Frédéric Ambroisine in 2003
  • Interview with star Yueh Hua, filmed by Frédéric Ambroisine in 2007
  • Interview with star Chen Hung-lieh, filmed by Frédéric Ambroisine in 2003
  • Talk Story with Cheng Pei-pei, a 2016 Q&A at the University of Hawaii moderated by George Chun Han Wang
  • Cinema Hong Kong: Swordfighting, a documentary on the history of the wuxia genre and Shaw Brothers’ contributions to it, produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003 and featuring interviews with Cheng Pei-pei, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Kara Hui, David Chiang and others
  • Original theatrical trailer, plus trailer for the sequel Golden Swallow
  • Image gallery
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella
First Pressing Only: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Anne Billson, and a 2010 essay by George Chun Han Wang about the relationship between director King Hu and producer Run Run Shaw

User avatar
yoloswegmaster
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:57 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#2 Post by yoloswegmaster » Fri Dec 17, 2021 6:06 pm

Seems strange to have the trailer for 'Golden Swallow' on here but not add the film itself to the package. Hopefully this means that they are adding it to the second Shaw boxset. I was also kinda hoping that they would have done their own restoration instead of relying on an older master.

User avatar
Red Screamer
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:34 pm
Location: Tativille, IA

Re: Come Drink With Me

#3 Post by Red Screamer » Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:21 pm

Such a great movie.

Glowingwabbit
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 1:27 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#4 Post by Glowingwabbit » Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:15 pm

Cinema Hong Kong: Swordfighting, a documentary on the history of the wuxia genre and Shaw Brothers’ contributions to it, produced by Celestial Pictures in 2003 and featuring interviews with Cheng Pei-pei, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, John Woo, Sammo Hung, Kara Hui, David Chiang and others
James Flower mentioned on on Twitter that this will also be on Shawscope Vol 2 so UK audiences don't miss out on it. I think it's safe to assume that's why they wouldn't package this with Golden Swallow (if they have it).

joeyterracotta
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2022 5:26 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#5 Post by joeyterracotta » Sun May 01, 2022 12:17 pm

How does the Arrow release compare to the 88Films one on the main feature? Is it from the same source? The Arrow Special Features look v good with the Tony Rayns material.

User avatar
dwk
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#6 Post by dwk » Sun May 01, 2022 4:14 pm

Both releases use the same master.

User avatar
ryannichols7
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 2:26 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#7 Post by ryannichols7 » Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:20 pm

so my girlfriend (mystic_matahari) and I watched this disc last night. firstly, I do want to say how it's sad that Celestial did not feel the need to restore this seminal title - a 2002 restoration is absolutely mindboggling for one of the more iconic Shaw movies, which even goes beyond Shaw since King Hu has such a reputation on his own! seeing all the blur lines and overprocessed grain was a bit sad as the film went on, I was hoping to see image quality in line with Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen, both of which were restored. hopefully they eventually see fit to do a new restoration and Arrow eventually release this on UHD, I think it'd be extremely suiting for the format. do wonder why other Shaw films were able to get new Arrow restorations and others weren't, but since Arrow and 88 used the same master, I assume it was contractual.

I am an admirer of wuxia and martial arts films but I wouldn't consider myself a fan. I have the two previously mentioned King Hu titles from Criterion and I picked up all the ones Masters of Cinema released - since I'm partially Taiwanese I try and support any Taiwanese films released in the west, which Hu's work following CDWM is. I could recognize the artistry behind Dragon Inn and A Touch of Zen but I will admit neither fully registered with me. I enjoyed Come Drink With Me a lot more, in spite of all the silly over the top elements that took place in it. I obviously am familiar with Kill Bill and Enter the Dragon and what elements were influenced by the Shaw films, but this was my first real forray into their work, as a sort of test to see if I should get the Shawscope box and I think I'm going to have to. the film felt so much more graceful to me, many gorgeous shots of the setting and landscape, the battle scenes wonderfully choreographed, and the humor in the work certainly got through to me. not to mention actually getting to hear one of the legendary Shaw soundtracks in all its glory was great - these films will probably be wonderfully auditory to me above anything else. plus, as someone who's mandarin isn't up to par, I appreciated this film being in the language, as it was pretty easy to follow. not quite there to where I wouldn't need subtitles, but still a nice surprise. going forward of course most films were Cantonese so I won't have this luxury. I'm going to make a conscious effort to try and get more from these films, and for anyone else on the fence I consider this a great place to start. Cheng Pei-pei was a very compelling lead (I'd be curious to see Golden Swallow) and I admire that the film kinda featured a Night of the Living Dead-like barrier breaking without the film needing to be an endless commentary about "oh it's a woman doing this!!" - instead treating her as an equal to everyone else. I do wish the story had kept more focus on her, but I need to accept that these movies are generally not going to be about the story for me - mystic was able to predict the entire story correctly with about 30 minutes left!

going through the features and Arrow really did a phenomenal job getting the Frederic Ambroisine interviews. Cheng Pei-pei and Yueh Hua are extremely compelling interview subjects and I'm watching the Chen Hung-lieh one now as well. going to watch the doc about the Shaw influence on Wuxia and do the booklet too, but I have to comment on the star of the set, another brilliant commentary by the great Tony Rayns. I love Tony's work very much and can listen to him talk about any movie (it was a nice surprise hearing him show up for MOC's Johnny Guitar - I had never heard him talk about Ray), and I know King Hu is one of his true expertise areas. he doesn't disappoint at all in this regard and definitely helped my understanding and contextualize the film plenty. he does such a good job in his tracks of breaking down both what's happening on screen if it's unclear (again, often stuff that needs historical or cultural context) and once you get to a more straightforward part, he veers off easily into talking about more biographical stuff or the history of the production/studio. he's the only commentator I don't mind hearing "uh"s and "um"s from because I can tell he quite literally gets very close to a one take recording, and he does such a good job of helping you feel like you're right there with him. tremendous work Tony and thank you James for enlisting him and getting all of these other great extras. just know if you ever get to restore this film, I'll pick up the new restoration instantly!

User avatar
vsski
Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:47 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#8 Post by vsski » Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:20 pm

ryannichols7 wrote:
Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:20 pm

I obviously am familiar with Kill Bill and Enter the Dragon and what elements were influenced by the Shaw films, but this was my first real forray into their work, as a sort of test to see if I should get the Shawscope box and I think I'm going to have to.
Not sure if you have bought the Shaw set yet or not, but if you haven’t I’d recommend doing so. Like you I prefer Wuxia movies and do like the King Hu films, but actually don’t like hand to hand combat movies very much. Quite a few people on this forum told me that the movies in the box set are probably not to my liking and they were right. However, the reason I’m still recommending it, is that it is basically a film class in a box. I knew about Shaw Brothers but not enough to fully understand it’s impact on film history and the genre of martial arts films in particular. The supplements in this box provide a lot of great information that really helped me to put some of the bits and pieces I knew into context. It also made me better understand why so many people seem to like these films, even though admittedly they still do little for me.

At the same time I have to say don’t buy the set if you are hoping to find another film like Come Drink with Me, as you will be disappointed. There really isn’t any movie in this set that comes close to the artistry of King Hu nor the female driven storyline.

So while I probably won’t revisit any of the films any time soon, I’m overall glad I bought the set as it helped me to fill in lots of gaps in my knowledge of movies, especially martial arts ones.

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: Come Drink With Me

#9 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sun Jul 23, 2023 11:02 pm

Spectrum in France are releasing this on UHD as part of their second King Hu collection (all of the other films are BD-only, alas). This is the first I've heard of a 4K restoration and hopefully Arrow and/or 88 Films will do an English-friendly release. Of course Arrow only released the older master on Blu last year, but that hasn't stopped them before.

ComradeMisato
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 1:31 pm

Re: Come Drink With Me

#10 Post by ComradeMisato » Sun Jul 23, 2023 11:07 pm

I'd be curious to see how it looks. I was a bit underwhelmed by the Celestial/Ritrovata 36th Chamber 4K.

Post Reply